Reflecting on the interrelationship between design, art and architecture through essays, exhibition reviews, and interviews
Design for All?
Design for All? Inclusive Design today
Leipzig: Spector Books
2024
Can design cater to a diverse society? How does it respond to the disparate demands of the people using it? Debates about inclusion and participation have been an important part of the design discourse since at least the 1980s. Contemporary design approaches expand on the concepts of Universal Design and Design for All, reinterpreting them in a community-based, participatory design practice.
“Design for All? Inclusive Design Today” gathers together a variety of recent projects, initiatives, and concepts drawn from different design disciplines, and sets up a dialogue with teachers and researchers who are active on the international scene to discuss them for the first time. Dealing with a range of different voices in inclusive design strategies can be seen as part of a paradigm shift that radically questions society’s normative values: Can design also make a society fairer?
With contributions by: Tom Bieling, Jos Boys, Hua Dong, Elizabeth Guffey, Florence Okoye, Joel Sanders, Gabrielle Schaad
Interviews with: Quemuel Arroyo, Rama Gheerawo, Aimi Hamraie, Grace Jun, Cecile Shellman, Joe Manser and Markus Schefer
Talking Bodies
Kunstbulletin, No. 1, January
2024
Bodies, everywhere: young, old, white, black, obese or emaciated, dominate the hall of the Museum für Gestaltung. Sometimes serious, sometimes lascivious or ironic, their faces gaze silently out from numerous posters.
The longer you stay in the exhibition “Talking Bodies”, the more the bodies have their say: they talk about how they are projection surfaces for desires on posters as part of our everyday visual culture. But also how they reproduce stereotypical representations of a mostly white and male gaze regime, as a poster for the Basel Sample Fair by the advertising agency Lang Gysi Knoll from 2000 shows: A completely naked pregnant woman advertises the “mother of all fairs”. Not far away, a man is ironing a pair of briefs under the headline “And suddenly the boys like doing housewor”, designed in 2016 by Ruf Lanz for the fashion label Big.
Bodily Encounters.
Pour un body turn en architecture
Open House No. 3, Expansion – Rêver l'habitat
2022
Despite the close links between the body and architecture, the body is still treated very marginally in contemporary architectural discourse. This is in contrast to the social sciences and humanities, where the body in all its diversity became the focus of research interest several decades ago as part of the so-called “body turn”.
Mudac and Photo Elysée in Lausanne
Baumeister, No. 9
2022
Two years ago, the new Cantonal Museum of Art in Lausanne, designed by Barozzi Veiga, caused quite a stir, and now it has a new neighbor: The Portuguese architects Aires Mateus have built a building for two institutions, the “Mudac” art museum and the “Photo Elysée” photo collection, which is integrated into a varied network of paths in the art district.
Space as Matrix
Kunstbulletin, No. 12
2022
Playgrounds, neighbourhood centres or emergency shelters: Everyday spaces rather than prestigious buildings are the focus of the exhibition “Space as Matrix”. The title refers to Susana Torre’s 1981 text of the same name. In it, the Argentinian-American architect problematises monofunctional construction methods based on binary constructions such as inside/outside or private/public. Instead, she proposes an adaptable spatial matrix designed with the users themselves. Based on the text, curator Geraldine Tedder presents five positions that oppose hierarchical and gendered spatial structures.
Der Raum entsteht erst im Kopf
NZZ, 19.11.20
2020
The idea of a space that stimulates all the senses, in which various arts are concentrated, is not new: as early as the Baroque era, architecture, painting, and sculpture were combined to create multi-sensory spatial experiences. Later, spurred on by Richard Wagner, the Gesamtkunstwerk became a romantic utopia in the 19th century. The “hyper-interiors” of early modernism, such as those of William Morris or Josef Hoffmann, were also committed to the idea of total design: In these meticulously planned environments, the interior design, furniture, textiles, and even the tableware formed a harmonious whole.
Constructing Film
Constructing Film. Swiss Architecture in the moving image
Basel: Merian Verlag
2015
Only a few academic texts examine the media-specificity of film and the mechanisms of translating architectural space into cinematic space in the context of a documentary representation of architecture. The focus of interest is clearly on fictional film. Fantastic film architecture and spatial design as a non-verbal narrative level are regularly discussed in international exhibitions, symposia and film festivals. This essay breaks new ground in the search for moving images of Swiss architecture.
Interview with Aristide Antonas
Aristide Antonas. Protocols of Athens. Basel: Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum, 2015
The exhibition “Aristide Antonas. Protocols of Athens” (2015) at the Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum is dedicated to the work of the Greek architect and philosopher Aristide Antonas (*1963, Athens). The focus is on his primarily speculative projects and thought experiments, the primary aim of which is to upgrade precarious sites in public space in Athens. Existing, simple materials from the urban environment serve as building elements. Combined with a carefully selected program, the result is an architecture based on the participation of the local population with a ready-made character that exemplifies new ways of dealing with the city in the face of the economic and national debt crisis that has been ongoing since 2009. In this interview, Aristide Antonas explains his work, which has been expanded to include a social dimension and is in opposition to global construction strategies.
Of Steps and Spaces
Kunst und Bau No. 9, Berlin: Vexer Verlag
2020
Billboards, scattered bar tables, surveillance cameras, ceiling cassettes made of expanded metal as well as dark artificial stone slabs form a generic décor. Music from the local radio station permeates the area from well-hidden speakers. The Metro Shop in Baden is at once a multitude of different things and none at all: a recently renovated underground shopping arcade from the 1970s, a connection between the train station and the old town, and a semi-public interior space for a quick lunch break. It is a hollowed-out space from which the non-spaces of supermodernity are formed. This is exactly where Veronika Spierenburg's work “Fliese und Fuge – Tile and Joint” comes into play: Her 13 × 3.3 metre large picture puzzle, fashioned out of ceramic tiles, liberates this space of transit from its interchangeability, assigns an identity and creates orientation.
Tobias Madison.
Das Blut, im Fruchtfleisch gerinnend beim Birnenbiss
Kunstbulletin, No. 4
2016
“Where is the front, where is the back?” The guestbook entry in the current show by Tobias Madison (*1985) could be taken as a leitmotif. The title “das blut, im fruchtfleisch gerinnend beim birnenbiss” (blood, coagulating in the flesh of a pear) already alludes to the confusion and is continued in the exhibition design: interior designer Mathias Renner has transformed the four rooms of the Kestnergesellschaft into a surrealistic setting that is at times reminiscent of a Cocteau stage set, at times of metaphysical painting. Open functional spaces and back walls dissolve the front and back.
Inventing Questions.
An interview with Bernard Tschumi
Uncubemagazine.com
2015
On the occasion of a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Bernard Tschumi at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, Evelyn Steiner talked to him about his practice, the influence of Cedric Price on his work and how after years of the dominance of form in architecture, the idea of architecture as a place of events is becoming current again.
Constructing Text. Swiss Architecture under discussion
Constructing Text. Swiss Architecture under discussion
Basel: Merian Verlag
2014
Text is an important medium in architecture. It contributes to communication where plans are not appropriate and images – if at all – play a subordinate role, for example on the radio or in daily newspapers. This publication examines text as an important medium for communicating architecture, and reviews its relevance and potential.
The book analyzes Swiss architectural debates of the last 40 years: from the “Seldwyla” settlement near Zurich to the question of urban sprawl, the Basel Trade Fair and the Europaallee in Zurich. It is about architectural criticism and its significance, about writing and talking about architecture: in professional journals, in daily newspapers, on the radio, or on the street.
In the photobooth with Beatriz Colomina
Uncubemagazine.com
2014
On the occasion of the exhibition “Playboy Architecture 1953–1979”, which she curated, architectural historian Beatriz Colomina talks about the central role of the American magazine Playboy in the dissemination and promotion of avant-garde architecture from the 1950s to the 1970s. From its first issue in 1953 until the late 1970s, the magazine regularly featured innovative and visionary architectural designs. Known primarily for its erotic photography, the magazine succeeded in introducing the world of modern architecture and design to a mass audience, becoming an important mediator of avant-garde design trends.